Original Blackout rules were designed to protect us the viewer!

Oh how that has changed! With all the furor over this weekends blackout of the Bucs/ Browns game at Raymond James Stadium, a first for the NFL playpen on Dale Mabry. It’s all about the NFL Owners, accused many times over of being a greedy lot. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, They simply HATED the idea of ANY NFL home game being broadcast on TV. The reasoning was that if you have a rule providing broadcasts if sellouts occur within any period of time, then it would HURT ticket sales because people would wait till the last minute to see if the game was going to be blacked out or not. So in 1973, Congress enacted the Blackout regulation that is still in place today, to give US, the viewers, the advantage over the owners. It forced to owners to broadcast a network game that sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff. Slowly this advantage started to change, and owners saw that it did not affect sales of tickets, and in fact provided for more sellouts once fans started to get used to watching home games on TV. THE BUCS HELPED CHANGE THE NFL BROADCASTING LANDSCAPE ??? Yes, but mind you, this law were talking about was for NETWORK broadcasts of games. There was no network contract for preseason games back then, so NO home preseason games were ever broadcast to local fans, until one Hugh Culverhouse got giddy after a 1978 Tampa Bay preseason win over New Orleans, and announced he would broadcast the Bucs/Dolphins game locally if there was a sellout by Monday. There was, and he announced the game would be televised, but then he learned the rules. Only if BOTH team owners agreed could a non network game be broadcast. So Culverhouse had basically put former Dolphins owner Joe Robbie on the spot, to which Robbie was NOT very happy. The Miami owner eventually agreed, and the very first preseason home sellout television broadcast of a preseason game in Florida happened right here in Tampa Bay, and changed the way we watch preseason games for years to come. With the Glazers buying up all their tickets last year for pennies on the dollar, Tampa Bay owners have continued the tradition of helping Bucs fans watch their team on TV. Source: Hubert Mizell; St. Pete Times- August 28, 1978.